Two out of three medical students do not know when to wash their hands

Date:

December 1, 2011

Source:

Elsevier

Summary:

Only 21 percent of surveyed medical students could identify five true and two false indications of when and when not to wash their hands in the clinical setting, according to a new study.

Share:

Total shares:

FULL STORY

Only 21 percent of surveyed medical students could identify five true and two false indications of when and when not to wash their hands in the clinical setting, according to a study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of APIC -- the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Three researchers from the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology at Hannover Medical School in Hannover, Germany collected surveys from 85 medical students in their third year of study during a lecture class that all students must pass before bedside training and contact with patients commences. Students were given seven scenarios, of which five ("before contact to a patient," "before preparation of intravenous fluids," "after removal of gloves," "after contact to the patient's bed," and "after contact to vomit") were correct hand hygiene (HH) indications. Only 33 percent of the students correctly identified all five true indications, and only 21 percent correctly identified all true and false indications.

Additionally, the students expected that their own HH compliance would be "good" while that of nurses would be lower, despite other published data that show a significantly higher rate of HH compliance among nursing students than among medical students. The surveyed students further believed that HH compliance rates would be inversely proportional to the level of training and career attainment of the physician, which confirms a previously discovered bias among medical students that is of particular concern, as these higher-level physicians are often the ones training the medical students at the bedside.

"There is no doubt that we need to improve the overall attitude toward the use of alcohol-based hand rub in hospitals," conclude the authors. "To achieve this goal, the adequate behavior of so-called 'role models' is of particular importance."

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Elsevier. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

K. Graf and I.F. Chaberny, R.-P. Vonberg. Beliefs about hand hygiene: A survey in medical students in their first clinical year. American Journal of Infection Control, Volume 39, Issue 10 (December 2011)

July 31, 2015  School is just around the corner, which means backpacks and packed lunches await your children. One expert offers tips for parents to promote healthy dental habits while away from ... read more

July 29, 2015  By blocking the expression of a certain gene in patients, researchers have contributed to the demonstration of great decreases in the concentration of triglycerides in their ... read more

July 29, 2015  Viewing aquarium displays led to noticeable reductions in blood pressure and heart rate, a research team found in the first study of its kind. They also noted that higher numbers of fish helped to ... read more

Oct. 7, 2014  Hospitalized patients wash their hands infrequently. They wash about 30 per cent of the time while in the washroom, 40 per cent during meal times, and only three per cent of the time when using the ... read more

Jan. 11, 2013  The CDC reports that 77 percent of males wash their hands when leaving the restroom. Recent research found that this figure increased to 86 percent among men who were primed with messages in ... read more

Nov. 12, 2012  According to a new study, most patients at risk for healthcare-associated infections agree that healthcare workers should be reminded to wash their hands, but little more than half would feel ... read more

May 2, 2011  People who wash their hands with contaminated soap from bulk-soap-refillable dispensers can increase the number of disease-causing microbes on their hands and may play a role in transmission of ... read more